ZESA is asking Zimbabweans with solar installations to sell their excess electricity into the ZESA national grid. According to a ZESA spokesperson, George Manyaya, this is now possible as part of its Net-Metering program.
The value of the power sent to ZESA by a consumer will then be credited to their account resulting in lower electricity costs for them. It’s like banking your solar electricity with ZESA so you can use it at night or on days when it’s not sunny enough.
ZESA is targeting to mobilise about 100MW through the initiative. Apparently, ZESA is already getting about 20MW fed into it grid from net-metering.
Said the spokesperson in an interview with ZBC:
“we’re urging our consumers especially here in Zimbabwe to partake in the net metering program which will help us meet the demand-supply gap. Net metering is a program where customers generating solar energy can feed excess power back into the national grid. What it does is that it helps increase supply but also assist customers to purchase power at a lower step in the tariff so the units are credited to the customer and there’s some offsetting there, thus reducing the bill of the customers.”
Techzim called the ZESA customer support to establish what it takes to start selling your excess power back to the company and they just advised us to check with our local ZESA office.
We asked if there’s a fee or equipment required, which they confirmed but would not say what the fee is, saying that it depends on the setup.
We also couldn’t get the prices ZESA is buying this excess electricity at.
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23 comments
Good move to save energy and share the critical resource. Kindly give more details on how it works, any minimum specifications required, gadgets and equipment.
Hope there is no u burnt the pole type 🤢
Talk to me imma got a changing station at home so 😞😀
Zesa doesn’t pay for the energy, thy give you credit on meter (kWh units). The inverter must be a grid tied inverter capable of feeding or injecting power into grid. An off grid inverter only takes power from grid and can’t feed- which is what most people who have solar have. A net meter from zesa is north of $150 plus an application and inspection. Total is not less than $300 plus cost of grid tied inverter makes this “adventure” a negative investment. All other countries pay people cash for any power you put into grid. Only in Zim do thy sell what you give them but thy won’t pay you!
Paying a tomatoe farmer with tomatoes!
Rank madness
They have no idea what they are talking about, i have been inviting th m to my house and they say we need to pay $60 assessment fee to a third party company “affiliated” to Zesa. After the assessment there will be more costs amounting to $300 just to get on net metering program. I am a qualified Electrical engineer registered with Engineering Council of South Africa with 5 years experience in large scale solar projects and i can tell you that this is supposed to be for free and should be straightforward. Again, you can only export power to the grid when the grid is available, now given the load shedding which starts at 4am to 10pm, how do you sell energy when the grid is off? They have no clue what they say.
I had no idea about that grid availability limitation. So once again, it’s up to zesa to up it’s game so that the grid is up longer during the day to make the investment in net metering a bit more viable. As it is, it seems like the better investment would be in additional power storage for the home
The problem with some of our people is to want to rush to copy & paste what they see happening in other countries without doing thorough feasibility studies with regards the feasibility of some of these projects.
That’s why we end up getting proposals like:
-commuter boats between Harare & Chitungwiza,
-bullet trains between Harare & Bulawayo,
etc
Solar power is best distributed from solar farms. I don’t believe in individual ‘power plants’ model. We need a robust solar power investment in all strategies like human capital, mindset shift, farm construction, service and maintenance, distribution network and political economy integrity.
They will buy zesa at 1c and sell at 12 c.this is theft.
United Kingdom tried this concept and it has now been abandoned. There is no benefit at all to the solar energy supplier. The rates that the electricity company pay are not worth the investment
Every convo I have had with ZESA and ZERA on net metering, has been shady and untransparent.
When I last checked, they had set impossible thresholds for residences to benefit. They don’t buy power from you unless it’s a gazillion megawatt hours🚮
Chivhayo akapedza here project yesolar grid yamakamupa. first tangai mapedza project yaChivhayo motipa magetsi then tozotanga zvinyowani. Zesa tiri kukuonai zvedu hatina kupusa zvekudaro.
Chivhayo akapedza here project yesolar grid yamakamupa. first tangai mapedza project yaChivhayo motipa magetsi then tozotanga zvinyowani. Zesa tiri kukuonai zvedu hatina kupusa zvekudaro.
Another looting tunnel pending opening…
Our company has connected to the grid and feeds power back to zesa but receive no credit. Zesa office vic falls refuse to address the issue despite continual querying
Sadly you can in NET meter when there is a positive input if zesa ,so with current situation where zesa is off from 5am to 10pm ,,,,you are unable to backfeed any zesa ,,,,,,as there is no connection
In order to feed back to the grid the grid needs to be on.
Generally the power is on between 10pm and 4 am when there is no solar.
Therefore it’s a waste of money buying the meter when you cannot feed back your access solar to the national grid.
And you looking at about $$300 for the new meter and a whole lot of running around trying to get zesa to install the new meter. Generally most inverters do not allow feedback and will not be allowed by zesa.
in theory its all ok but the practical is a different case..1st they don’t pay you money, they give you zesa credits, you pay them money for assesment and for the meter and of course unovanyengerera kuti vauye. You will have to buy a grid tied inverter.Lets also not forget that the grid is always off.the investment doesnt seem viable to me. i would rather invest in good solar equipment and harvest as much as i can
I submitted my forms and single line diagrams almost 3 months ago and the zesa guys don’t answer their calls and when answer they say we are busy.
This is an excellent initiative by ZESA! Encouraging Zimbabweans with solar installations to participate in the Net-Metering program is a great way to bridge the demand-supply gap while promoting the use of renewable energy. It’s beneficial for both ZESA and the consumers, providing a sustainable solution for electricity needs.
I do have a few questions: What specific equipment is required for setting up the Net-Metering system, and how much does it typically cost? Also, could you provide more details on the rates at which ZESA buys the excess electricity? This information would be very helpful for those of us interested in participating.
Looking forward to seeing more progress on this front and the positive impact it will have on our energy sector!
Best regards,
https://iqratechnology.com/academy/
Hatidi
This issue yeNet metering could be good. We already have a budget for solar energy running into millions of dollars. What if, instead of giving Chivhayo 5 million for solar energy, then nothing comes from it, we distribute the money among citizens, toisa maSolar on their rooftops. Instead of giving them money for what they are contributing to the grid, ZESA yotora mari yayo. This will reduce load mazuva akunenge kuine zuva then make a positive contribution to the grid.